


Falling into step

by Lady_Firiel



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-25
Updated: 2015-06-25
Packaged: 2018-04-06 02:49:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4205118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Firiel/pseuds/Lady_Firiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Challenging. That’s what falling into step with him was. And he loved the challenge. And maybe, he loved him too. </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling into step

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there~!  
> This time it's a MomoRyo work, because I really, really like them and I feel like they deserve a lot more love than what they get.  
> It's a really soft fic, though, like, _very_ soft (no spoilers, you'll see~), but I had the idea and I just gave it a try. Hope it's good enough, at least for now~.  
>  Friendly reminding that English's not my first language, so have mercy on me~.  
> Just kidding~. Hope you enjoy this work~.

_**Falling into step** _

«Echizen! You’re so slow, I’m gonna leave you here!»  
Practice for the Seishun Gakuen tennis club had just ended and the enthusiastic second year regular Momoshiro Takeshi couldn’t wait to get some junk food with his best friend.  
Said best friend was none other than Echizen Ryoma, first year regular and prince of cockiness.  
They had a sort of daily routine which consisted in going out for burgers and then either going home or playing some street tennis.  
Today was one of the days on which they played some more tennis. Practice hadn’t been that hard, Tezuka hadn’t made them run extra laps –which was a very rare occurrence- and Inui hadn’t threatened them with some new juice so, you know… Everything was pretty much ordinary.  
A practice with no extra laps and no Inui juice, even as tough as it was, wasn’t enough to tire them. Not when you are a young boy full of energy and a tennis freak on top of that.  
Momo had changed first and told his friend to hurry so that they could go eat, then he’d rushed out of the locker room to get his bike.  
Echizen never liked others telling him what to do and he sure wasn’t going to willingly listen to an order like that, even if it was sort of friendly. No, he would take his time and join his friend when he was finished.  
He knew Momo would wait for him, no matter what he said.  
That led them to the –usual- situation in which the second year would yell at his junior to hurry up, claiming he was _purposely_ being slow. Which was actually true at times.  
«I’m not slow, Momo-senpai, you’re just too fast»  
For Echizen teasing his senpai was an almost endless source of pleasure and entertainment, so he couldn’t help but smirk when the older guy snorted and called him a brat.  
«Let’s get going now or it’ll get late» he said, starting to walk leading his bike by hand.  
There were times when walking, rather than cycling, was a pleasant thing to do, when the heat wasn’t too intense and they weren’t too tired after training.  
Momo was something like 19 cm taller than Echizen, which meant he had longer legs, which meant the younger player had to sped up his pace a little to keep up with his friend.  
It bothered him how one misstep could be enough to fall behind. He didn’t like having someone to follow.  
It wasn’t that his senpai was fast or anything, really, it was just the height difference –another thing the freshman despised, mainly because it led to having to drink milk-.  
He had always felt like someone who led rather than someone who followed. It had nothing to do with being a team captain or a leader, he was an independent twelve year old focused on _his own_ self-improvement, he didn’t have time to _lead_ someone else to the top. He was willing to let others follow him, though, but they had to keep his pace.  
He had his own path to follow and no time to help those who were left behind (though that was a lie, he wasn’t _that_ listless).  
When it came to Momo, though, the other always managed to somehow leave him a step behind. Literally.  
Maybe that was it, the effort required to fall into step with him, that made it worth it.  
He couldn’t slow down, he couldn’t make a mistake, he couldn’t _let his guard down_ for a single moment, otherwise he’d fall behind.  
That gave him a thrill, a thrill almost – _almost_ \- similar to that of very good tennis match.  
With Momo, he didn’t even want to surpass him, which would only require him to speed up continuously, but he needed to find the right speed and keep it without fail.  
Physics itself proved his point: motions with either constant or gradual variation of acceleration are largely common in the world, everything needs an acceleration to gain speed; but motions which acceleration is equal to zero, though relatively easy to solve in a matter of school problems, are rare to witness in reality. Keeping speed constant was, in the real word, harder than actually changing it.  
_Challenging_. That’s what falling into step with Momo was.  
And he _loved_ the challenge.  
And maybe, he loved Momo too.

  
After eating –and Momo had to treat again, seriously, they weren’t a couple on a date, Echizen could have paid for his share- they went to a street court nearby which was luckily empty, so they could play all they wanted.  
They changed and after leaving their bags on a bench by the court’s side they walked on said court to start playing.  
«Which?» Momo asked, ready to spin the racket.  
«Rough»  
The second year spun the racket and let it fall on the ground.  
«Rough. Your serve then» he said, grinning, passing the ball to Echizen.  
The first year took it and positioned himself to serve.  
He would start with a twist serve, Momo knew, they had played together enough times to fully know each other.  
That, though, meant that Echizen knew him just as well, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing.  
But that was part of the thrill, the shivers that went down his spine when he returned a ball with a special move and waited for the other to pull out some new move to counter it.  
Somewhere deep down inside himself, Momoshiro knew he couldn’t defeat Echizen, not that time, maybe not the following one, maybe someday, though. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t go all out and try.  
The first year was almost in a league of his own, a league for prodigies, the same as Tezuka and Fuji –and many others-, a league which he just couldn’t enter, no matter how hard he tried. Not yet, at least.  
He was good at tennis, pretty good, actually, he knew that and he had results to prove it, but he was still far from reaching them.  
That was probably why stealing a point, a game –sometimes even a set- from the other was like falling into step with him.  
Countering his moves, surprising him with a new one of his own, all those things made him feel like, for a moment and maybe not much longer, he was walking side by side with the younger player.  
Working hard to keep up with Echizen was exciting, and though he still lost a lot of times he never felt like he was struggling to reach him. He was merely a step behind, but his legs were long, he could reach him, and sometimes he actually did and those were the moment when he needed his most energy and focus, in order not to fall behind again.  
He wasn’t scared, though. He knew the tennis prodigy liked to play with him (maybe because he won so often? He didn’t know), so he must have had some good plays to offer, otherwise the other wouldn’t even suggest they played.  
«You still have lost more to work on*, Momo-senpai» he would say at match point, grinning, and that was when he felt the most thrilled, when he knew if he played it right he could still win, he could still reach him.  
_Challenging_. That’s what falling into step with Echizen was.  
And he _loved_ the challenge.  
And maybe, he loved Echizen too.

**Author's Note:**

> *As you know, that's the English translation of Echizen's catch phrase _"Mada mada dane"_. The reason why I chose to use the English version rather than the more popular Japanese one it's because I have a fixation with using one language as much as I can. That is, "I'm writing in English so I shall use as much English as possible". Therefore I used the English one even though I assumed he used the Japanese one in the fic reality.  
>  Too twisted? Ah, maybe~. Don't mind me, I have a wicked mind~.
> 
> Now, I hope I haven't scared you too much with that note above.  
> Shot whatever you feel like shooting, advice, suggestions, whatever is fine~.  
> Hope you liked this tiny story.  
> See you~.


End file.
